


Memories

by Faleep



Series: The tales of a trainer Sona [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 13:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15365349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faleep/pseuds/Faleep
Summary: Fal is asked to recount the story of their most trusted Partner Pokémon





	Memories

_Dear Rehabilitator Fal,_

_As an important member of the Pokémon league, and as someone so connected with our next generation of trainers, we at the league would like to ask you to create a presentation for a class of our future trainers. We compiled questions from all of them, and the most common question asked was this;_

_**Who was your first Pokémon partner? Which, of every single creature, was the first Pokémon you truly bonded with on your journey?** _

_We at the league would like to ask you to answer this question with the story of your most trusted partner Pokémon, and how you earned that trust. The presentation will be on xx/xx/xxxx, at -------- high school, at 10am. Feel free to bring your partner along with._

_Signed  
The Pokémon league champions_

Fal read the email over one last time, smiling softly. It wasn't the first time they had gotten a prompt like this from the league. It was a nice way to connect to the next generation. This particular prompt was an interesting one, although it was easy to answer. It made them smile as they glanced out the window. 

A group of Zangoose wrestled in the yard beyond the window. Most people assumed that, due to their love of Zangoose, that a Zangoose was their first partner. It's an easy assumption to make, considering the fact that they have 34 shiny Zangoose and 50 regular Zangoose on their farm. However, their most trusted partner was not a Zangoose, in fact they didn't even catch their first Zangoose until long, long after their initial journey. 

The Zangoose moved on, and a proud Empoleon carrying a crate waddled past the window. Fal smiled, Empoleon would technically fit the criteria, since that was their first Pokémon, way back when they began… but Starfur the Empoleon just wasn't their _most trusted_ partner. 

The Empoleon moved on with its box, and there, sitting on an old wooden fence, was an old Staraptor. Her feathers were graying, and her eyes were slowly clouding over. Her once vibrant red crest feathers were now more of a pastel red, and her chest marking were slowly becoming white. It was obvious this bird was old. 

Fal smiled, _there. That was their most trusted partner._ They stood from their desk, and walked out into the yard. The Staraptor raised her head when they approached, giving a soft welcoming trill. Fal smiled and ran their hands through the Staraptor’s feathers, “good morning Storn. Do you wanna go on a little trip today?” They asked softly, and Storn gave an accepting trill and nuzzled their chest. 

Fal ran their hands underneath Storn’s chest and lifted the bird up off the fence. Storn was smaller and lighter than the average Staraptor, even more so in her old age. Storn trusted them, as she was pliant and relaxed in their hold. Her head rested on their shoulder, and she closed her eyes as they carried her off. 

Fal took Storn to their car, they already had everything else ready, and just over two hours to drive down to the high school. Fal placed the bird in the front seat, where she immediately got comfortable. Storn was one of two Pokémon on their entire farm of over 1,500 Pokémon to be allowed the front seat. Storn was a front seat bird, and that was that.

Storn dozed off during the drive, and was still sleeping when Fal arrived at the school. They went and got checked in with the attendance staff, moved their car to be closer to the auditorium, unloaded and set up their supplies, and then finally came back for the still sleeping bird. Fal smiled softly, and picked Storn up out of the car. The action woke the raptor, but Storn merely gave a soft coo before relaxing against them.

When Fal re-entered the auditorium with Storn in arms, it was about half full with students. Most of them were already trainers in the sense that they had Pokémon with them, but only a handful were actually registered with the league to go on long, epic journeys across the country. And it would always be like that, not many actually wanted to leave home and travel into the unknown. Being a league trainer was dangerous and often times deadly. The life of a league trainer was not for everyone. 

That being said, Fal’s main purpose here was to try and drum up some Interest in the league challenge. As well as just generally connect to the kids. Fal waited on stage, with Storn in their arms, as the auditorium slowly filled with teenagers. 

Once the place was filled and the rowdy group quieted down, Fal turned on their earset mic, “hello there y'all. So, I'm pretty sure most y'all know my name, seeing as I live just up th’way. Pretty sure most y'all even got yer first few partnahs from me. So I'm gonna skip over all that stuffle and just get to th’point.” Fal said as they walked back and forth across the stage, still carrying Storn.

“Now, most y'all were wantin to know bout me first partnah. The first Pokémon I ever truly bonded with. Well, I'm a holdin ‘er. This ‘ere is Storn, n she was my first true partner. Now, don't let er old age and docile appearance fool ya, she's my strongest Pokémon and has Gone toe to toe with a good number of légendaires and _won._ Anyone who has ever encountered even a Staravia knows how vicious they can be, and Staraptor are even worse. This trust I built with her took a long time, and one fateful encounter.” 

Fal paused in their pacing to set Storn - now awake - down on the stage, “you see, a long time ago I journeyed through Sinnoh. It wasn't my first journey actually, I'm part of that strange generation where they kept on upping the minimum league as we were journeying. It was annoying, to say the least. I went on my first in kanto waaaaay back when I was ten. And I failed. Because I was _ten._ Like Honestly, a ten year old, controlling such powerful beasts, on their own! Yeah, i barely got past LT Surge, by the way, kudo’s to him cause he probably saved my life.”

“After that, i went through Jhoto. Didn't get past Whitney and her beast of a Miltank. That Pokémon is a literal tank, and I was 12. I wasn't much smarter than when I was ten. I took a fire type up against a Pokémon that knew an over powered rock type move. Honestly, it's no wonder why the jhoto officials took my Pokémon away. I went to Hoenn next and made some progress there, but, I had to move cause I was still living with my mom and she uh. Well, put it simply she made trouble in hoenn and had to bail. I got dragged along with.” 

“And Then we came to Sinnoh. I was 16, and things were changing. Obviously there was puberty, but along with that there was the ever growing tension between me and my mom, as well as some other things I won't talk about. In Sinnoh there came a new chance to finally leave. Now, for those of you who don't know, back in those days, those who succeed in their league challenge can rightfully claim themselves as Independent minors and be free to do whatever the heck they wanted. Obviously that rule is gone now since you have to be 18 anyways, but back in those days that blessed rule was a calling card for kids like me. Kids who grew up in bad houses, kids who grew up fearing for their lives each day.”

“So I took off. Got a little Piplup as my starter, and I kept going. Things had gotten real bad between me, my mom, and the boy she was living with, bad enough that she came after me. My journey through Sinnoh wasn't just a league journey, I was literally on the run from her, fearing what she'd do if she caught me. Along the way I picked up some Pokémon. Most got tossed in the PC boxes, shipped off to league farms like mine where they were cared for. But there were a couple who stuck around, and one of those was Storn.”

Fal sat down on the stage to pet Storn, “I remember when I caught her. She was level two, the weakest you could ever catch a wild Pokémon. Just a little jelly bean of a Starly. I caught her cause she was new and interesting, but way back then I had planned on just tossing her in a pc and forgetting about her. I had even planned on naming her Store, to remind myself of that. I still don't know how I hit the N instead of the E, when electronically naming her. They're not even anywhere near each other! It's probably just cause I'm an idiot, even more so back then. Never did store her either, it was right around then that I first found out my mom was a hunting me, as we were just outside of twinleaf town and she was screamin my name. I took off like a startled Buneary, and never looked back.”

“That was just the start. She might have been a weak little bird at the time, but guys, she was ferocious and wouldn't back down for nothin. She fought everything in her way, didn't matter what it was, didn't matter if it could hurt her or worse. She took it head on and won. Heck, if any of y'all know the Sinnoh league path, you know that the seventh just is up in snowpoint city, and it's an ice type gym. Well, back then I was an idiot and thought that ice types were weak to flying. To be fair, snowver live up there, and they're part grass, which _is_ weak to flying. And that was the first Pokémon I really encountered up there. I was an idiot, don't Judge me too harshly.”

“Anyways, I went into the seventh gym with her in my lead… and she tanked the entire gosh darned gym. She got hurt, but nothin a super potion couldn't fix up. She tanked the next gym too, mostly, and that was an electric type gym. But, by then we were already bonded partners and she trusted me as much as I trusted her. And there was one major event that happened that really solidified that bond.”

“It happened up on the high upper slopes of Mt Coronet. Was exploring some old ruins and also just generally enjoying the view, it was so high up and so wild and untamed and beautiful. I truly felt grew up there, it was just me and my Pokémon. Up there on those high slopes, far away from it all. Far away from the troubles that drove me away, far away from my past. Up there, I really did find myself. I had been running for so long, running from my mother, from my step father, from the pain and the suffering and the abuse. Even on my own, I was still looking over my shoulder constantly, still terrified that every shadow held pain, held something that would hurt me or worse.”

“Up there, it was just me and my Pokémon. It seems anticlimactic, but just being up there, being so high above everything else, above all my pain and worries and woes, that's where I really bonded with my team. That's where I first really opened up myself. It was not without incident, i was still hurting, still on edge. Still prone to looking over those sheer cliffs and thinking about what it would be like to fall. I even tried, once. I fell about twenty feet before Storn caught me, hauled me back up to safe ground, and then thoroughly laid into me in chirps and trills and though I couldn't understand the language I could understand the meaning. She was telling me she was worried and scared. Worried for me, and scared that one day I'd do something I'd never be able to recover from. Something that would leave her and the others alone.”

“Up on those cliffs, she saved my life in more ways than one. I never tried to fall again after that. I did look, and I did think, but then she was there, and then so were the others, guiding me away from the edge and back towards where I was loved. She was the leader of my group, the mother of us all, and heh. She really did make sure we knew we were loved. Once we came down off those cliffs, once we made it back to Hearthome city, I decided that I would stay strong, if not for myself than for her.”

“She saved my life many times during our journey together, so much so that before we left Sinnoh she had reached the level cap of level 100. Not an easy feat back then, experience was hard to come by and Sinnoh isn't home to very many experience bunnies like Audino. But somehow she, and I, got there. Together, we got there. We passed the league challenge, we became champions together. We journeyed on together, to new countries and new adventures. She's now one of two left from my original Sinnoh team, it's been so long the others have passed away. I do hope to someday take her back to Sinnoh, to let her fly one last time in the place we both call home.”

“Raising Storn changed my life, and I know, deep in my soul, that if I ever got the chance to go back and start my journey over again, I'm definitely going to be taking A Staraptor along with me. My True and most trusted partner Pokémon. My best friend for life.”


End file.
